Page 1 of Which DVD-R/RW?

Hello i am thinking of buying myself a DVDWriter, i have heard that the Pioneer drives are good, but i see Dixons are selling the RICOH RIC 12XCD DVD +RW+R for £199 reduced from £299.

Can someone give me some advise on what to buy.

Cheers!

i can only speak of my own prefrence i bought the pioneer dvd-r writer a05 for £210 from svp very good dvd-r writer will write @ x4 on dvd-r 4x media around 5 people i know either have the a04 or a05 writers have had no probs i use mine for back up of data dvd backups and xbox backups media can be bought for as little as 50p a disc dvd+r media is more expensive and more people own dvd-r writers dvd recorders etc best place to look is www.dvdwriters.co.uk i seen the oem vers of the a05 last week @ a local computer fair @ £180 bargain , this year is gonna be the year of the recordable dvd format bye bye vhs i bet by the end of this year theyll be around 10+ different manufacturers making em .. have a good look but i cant knock my pioneer it does the bizz!

You should opt for one of the new multiformat drives if you can afford it. They burn to DVD-R and DVD+R and the RW variants of both. Saves worrying about committing to one format or another.

Here`s a link to the current Sony model: http://www.dabs.com/25Y5MF

Having said that, I`m very happy with my Pioneer 104. I`ve bought cheap bulkpaq DVD-R`s and not had any problems to date. Compatibility is great.

Thanks for your replies, i will have a look at the Pioneer models.

Cheers!

my pioneer 104 rocks

and the 105 is twice the speed for around 200 squids u cant go wrong

Ok, another lost soul here,

I am really interested in the pioneer dvd-r model, but I have a couple of questions, where`s the best place to get them from, are computer fairs a good idea, are they easy enough to install, do they back up dvd films and extras or just the film. where`d the best place to get the dvd-r media from.

Hope someone out there can help.

Barret,
(Lost in the technological world.)

"are they easy enough to install"

Yep - it`s just as easy as installing a normal CD-ROM drive or whatever. Just configure the drive as Master or Slave (as appropriate), connect it to a spare IDE connector, set it up in the BIOS and Bob`s your uncle.

"do they back up dvd films and extras or just the film"

That`s to do with the software you use, not the drive. As you`re probably aware, commercial DVDs can be either single layer (4.7GB) or dual layer (9GB), whereas DVD-Rs are single layer only.

It`s very simple indeed to make an exact backup of a single-layer DVD onto a DVD-R - a free program like DVD Decrypter is all you need.

As for copying dual-layer DVD movies, it`s entirely up to you as to whether you want to include the extras, split the film across 2 discs, or have the entire film on 1 disc at a lower quality than the original. There`s a huge choice of software available for this purpose, it`s a matter of personal preference. (I would recommend *not* using Nero as your writing software though - it writes non-compliant discs which don`t work in many DVD players.) The guides at http://www.vcdhelp.com are a very good starting point.

"where`d the best place to get the dvd-r media from"

I get all of mine from SVP - http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk - I would recommend getting one of their sample packs first, so you can see which media works best for you. Buying really cheap media (the Bulkpaq stuff) is often a false economy, as they aren`t very compatible with standalone DVD players. I tend to use the Choice media for less important stuff, and Verbatim for things I want to keep.

Incidentally, SVP sell hardware too, including the Pioneer DVR-105 - I bought my writer from there.

Mike

gen-3 bulk paq (purple) are the same disc as choice & the same price

Thanks for the heads up ogster - I was thinking of the older Bulkpaqs.

Mike